Despite doing what I think are some great things for the American people, the Obama administration has a dark side. Joe Biden and many others on staff come straight from the RIAA camp, and it shows. Today, the Obama administration disregarded every US law relating to theft and copyright by stating that piracy is "flat, unadulterated theft".

I'm a huge fan of Garbage, including their obscure b-sides, which can ONLY be obtained from the web. One of their b-sides is "Candy Says", a cover from The Velvet Underground. As such, I got interested in The Velvet Underground.

Consequently, I decided to check them out. I downloaded a few of their albums (legal in The Netherlands), and was thoroughly impressed. Since I always buy my music, I went to my local record store, and bought three Velvet Underground albums.

Without me "pirating" these albums to try them out, I would've never spent the money to buy the actual albums. How have I deprived anyone of income here? Hasn't my "piracy" actually earned them money?

If I would not have liked their albums as much, I would've simply deleted the downloaded mp3s, and be done with it. They won a customer through what you call "piracy".